Cit·y n.; pl. Cities
1. A large town.
2. A corporate town; in the United States, a town or collective body of inhabitants, incorporated and governed by a mayor and aldermen or a city council consisting of a board of aldermen and a common council; in Great Britain, a town corporate, which is or has been the seat of a bishop, or the capital of his see.
A city is a town incorporated; which is, or has been, the see of a bishop; and though the bishopric has been dissolved, as at Westminster, it yet remaineth a city. --Blackstone
When Gorges constituted York a city, he of course meant it to be the seat of a bishop, for the word city has no other meaning in English law. --Palfrey
3. The collective body of citizens, or inhabitants of a city. “What is the city but the people?”
Syn: -- See Village.